a dedicated unit supporting Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General into the investigation of alleged Russian starvation war crimes has confirmed that it is ‘highly likely’ that Russia destroyed Ukraine’s Kakhovka Dam in an attempt to destroy or render useless critical infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of Ukrainians across the country.

The first-of-its-kind Starvation Mobile Justice Team, set up by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance and led by British barrister and world-leading starvation expert, Catriona Murdoch, was among the first investigative units, prosecutors and military experts to visit the affected areas in the Kherson and Mykolaiv Oblasts following the collapse of the dam on 6 June 2023.

The Starvation Mobile Justice Team – which is part of the UK, EU and US-sponsored Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group (ACA) – was part of a delegation including Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, regional prosecutors, and the International Criminal Court, which visited several sites across the region engulfed by the damage to the Kakhovka Dam and Hydroelectric Power Plant. The delegation investigated the site and surrounding area for the cause of the dam’s collapse and to witness and document first-hand the fallout of the destruction.

According to the Starvation Mobile Justice Team, the evidence and analysis of the information available – which includes seismic sensors and discussions with top demolition experts – indicates that there is a high probability the destruction was caused by pre-emplaced explosives positioned at critical points within the dam’s structure. Other theories have pointed to the damage being caused by mismanagement of the facility, allowing water levels to rise to record highs, but the investigators have dismissed this claim saying it is highly unlikely that mismanagement alone would explain such catastrophic destruction.

The Starvation Mobile Justice Team has also confirmed that those conducting the attack or overseeing the management of the dam would require access or control of the site, whilst noting that the Russian military has been in control of the affected part of the Kakhovka Dam since its illegal invasion in February 2022.

Commenting on the Starvation Mobile Justice Team’s initial findings, Catriona Murdoch Partner and Head of Starvation Portfolio at Global Rights Compliance said:

“Information available to Global Rights Compliance and verified with a leading Open-Source Intelligence provider, indicates that at this stage, it is highly likely Russian forces deliberately destroyed the dam. Our evidence and analysis suggests that it is unlikely that mismanagement alone would explain such catastrophic destruction. Instead, we find there is a high probability the collapse of the dam was caused by pre-emplaced explosives positioned at critical points within its structure.

“The damage to the Kakhovka Dam speaks to a broader, ongoing pattern to terrorise, deliberately starve and punish the Ukrainian people, no matter the cost to human life. Given the patterns of attacks against water infrastructure and installations we have been documenting, coupled with the ease with which Russian forces have attacked other objects indispensable to the survival of civilian populations, including in Chernihiv and Mariupol, the destruction of Kakhovka Dam appears to be part of an ongoing and deliberate pattern of attack against civilian objects. It therefore falls squarely under international humanitarian law, binding on all parties to the conflict in Ukraine.”

Under international humanitarian law, dams are presumed to be civilian in nature, meaning that, absent a valid military objective, any deliberate attack against a dam may constitute a war crime. But Murdoch says that even if it was deemed a legitimate military target, actions deliberately taken to destroy the dam could remain criminal in nature, due to it’s the severe impact on the local civilian population.

“Even in the highly unlikely scenario the dam, or indeed the area nearby, posed a valid military objective commensurate with eviscerating the dam, it is still afforded an elevated protection under international humanitarian law, either as an object indispensable to survival by virtue of its utility as a hydro-energy source – in relation to its agricultural and irrigation utility – or as a work or installation containing dangerous forces.

“Dams may not be attacked when the release of water would lead to severe losses among the civilian population. Even valid military objectives situated on or near dams cannot be attacked if the impact would knowingly cause severe losses among the civilian population.”

“What is also clear at this stage is there was a wholesale failure to effectively warn civilians and minimise the severe losses they endured. Civilians living near the Kakhovka Dam were not warned of an impending attack and were even shelled as they attempted to evacuate flooded areas.”

The collapse of the dam follows a law change in Russia, just one week before the collapse of the dam, which prohibits investigations into accidents at hydrotechnical structures resulting from military operations, sabotage, and terrorist activities in territories which Russia is occupying in Ukraine. Investigators believe this recent change to be something of a ‘smoking gun’.

In its initial investigation, the Starvation Mobile Justice Team, OPG and ICC have also examined the fallout of the collapse of the dam. The collapse is reported to be the worst environmental disaster to hit Ukraine since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and is likely to have a similar, generational impact on the local natural environment, with irrigation systems for over half a million hectares of land now disturbed, destroying the region’s agricultural capacity and leaving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without drinking water.

Investigators say that a ’floating death’ also now plagues Kherson, as the onrush of water from the collapsed dam has uprooted many thousands of unexploded landmines planted by the Russians in retreat from the occupied territories. This is putting civilians and civilian infrastructure at further, lethal risk.

Yousuf Syed Khan, Global Rights Compliance’s Senior Lawyer supporting the investigation, and part of the delegation visiting the site on 10 and 11 June, comments on the wider effects of the dam’s collapse:

“What we documented in Kherson is a horrific starvation crime. The reverberating effects of this attack are no doubt immense, far-reaching, and multigenerational, as entire industries and livelihoods related to agribusiness have been severely affected.

“The devastation wrought by this disaster cannot be overstated and will undoubtedly be felt for years to come as entire industries, from irrigation to agriculture, water, fishing, livestock, and several more, now face the widespread, long-term, and severe impacts.”

The Starvation Mobile Justice Team is one of multiple Mobile Justice Teams set up by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance – led by world-leading British human rights barrister, Wayne Jordash KC – to provide critical support to the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General by assisting Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors on the ground as the conflict continues. The teams bring together leading domestic and international experts in the field of international criminal law, mass atrocity crimes investigations and case-building, as well as providing support to victims and witnesses. The Mobile Justice Team programme is part of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, sponsored by the UK, EU and US governments.